Many thanks for this advise. My book is now slowly getting added to the store websites through Ingram also. I’m a bit stuck again at the next stage and seeking your advise again please if I may.

I started advertising it on AMS adverts only to realise later that this applied only for the Amazon.com site and not the UK site. It’s disappointing as I am more interested in the UK market.

From what I understand, AMS UK charges either £35/month or £0.75 per sale, both of which seem rather pricey to me, as my book sales at the moment are very very low (it’s the first month). Even otherwise I’m not sure whether it would be difficult to breakeven with such costs. Would you have any insight on this please? I couldn’t find any resources specific to UK either as it seems to be completely a separate system from AMS USA.

Any advise or pointers would once again be really appreciated.
Thanks very much
Percy

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Comment on Self-publishing at a glance by Amanda Wills https://selfpublishingadventures.com/self-publishing-at-a-glance/#comment-12951
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 21:08:07 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=95#comment-12951Thank you! I will certainly keep you posted. And good luck with narrating The Secret Lake. I did think about narrating my own, but decided I didn’t have the patience (or the skills to edit it)!!
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Comment on Self-publishing at a glance by kareninglis https://selfpublishingadventures.com/self-publishing-at-a-glance/#comment-12950
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 19:46:44 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=95#comment-12950That sounds like a sensible plan in the circumstances! Best of luck with it and let us know how you get on 🙂
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Comment on Self-publishing at a glance by Amanda Wills https://selfpublishingadventures.com/self-publishing-at-a-glance/#comment-12945
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 12:33:33 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=95#comment-12945Hi Karen,

Thank you – that is indeed a great help! I think for the moment as, unfortunately, the budget is tight, the only option for me is to go the ACX route and try and find a narrator willing to royalty share. But my plan is to do this for the first book in the series only, so I can see what sales are like. If sales are encouraging, I will look at paying up front (using the same narrator if possible), and going wide with the rest of the series. As there are already seven Riverdale books and I am halfway through writing the eighth, this could potentially make it financially viable going forward. I also then have the option of putting three together at a time and producing box-sets, too.
Many of my readers are adults as I have discovered that grown-ups still like to read pony books! I’m not sure whether they would be interested in audio books, but they would hopefully be happy to buy them for their pony-mad children and grandchildren!
Anyway, thanks for your insights, they are very useful and much appreciated.

No problem raising this question at all as it’s an important one, particularly as all the evidence points towards a huge growth in audiobook listening, including for children’s books. The short answer is that I have done just one audiobook to date and used an American actor friend who already narrates a lot of (adult) audiobooks. I decided to pay him up front as I couldn’t be sure when he’d get any income because I wasn’t sure how well the audiobook would sell. So far it’s sold a grand total of around 15 I think but I do have to confess to not having actively marketed it! Also it’s not my ‘bestseller’ as such — it’s Henry Haynes and the Great Escape btw… The other thing is that I have chosen not to make it exclusive to ACX as that would have locked me in for seven years which I didn’t fancy at all…

My goal for 2019 is to record The Secret Lake myself — and to outsource the recording of Eeek! But with a never-ending task list I’m not yet sure when I will get to it. What I have done though is to buy a mic and mixer that I hope will give me the sound quality I need; I now need to get some soundproofing 🙂 This was after reading around quite a bit. I’m not yet sure if that will work but it felt worth the trial given that studio hourly fees are pretty high. I have done some recording for my book apps previously, so it’s not completely alien to me. However, I’m under no illusion as to how much work will be involved and may end up outsourcing the editing (and indeed the recording) if I need to.

If you can find someone to royalty share then that may be the way to go if budget is tight. If it weren’t I’d definitely pay and keep the full royalties and go wide. But how many books you’ll sell I don’t know! Mind you, if yours is a pony series you could be onto a winner — I’d have devoured that as child, I’m sure, as I rode ponies in my youth!

I do know of one other indie children’s author who has produced an audio book — I’ve been meaning to ask her how that has gone. I’ll leave a message here later.

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you as one UK children’s author to another!

The New Year has given me the impetus to look at my backlist and, in Joanna Penn’s words, be a better publisher. The top item on my 2019 to do list is to look at audio books, specifically my Riverdale box set, which contains the first six books in the Riverdale Pony Stories. (Again, because Joanna says box sets offer good value to readers so are always more popular).

I’ve been doing a bit of research and, apart from David Walliams’ books, there really aren’t very many kids’ audio books out there, which I can’t decide is a good or bad thing!

I just wondered, is this something you have considered? I am minded at the moment to do a 50:50 royalty split with ACX because, with the best will in the world, I don’t have the money up front to pay a narrator and retain the royalty.

Anyway, I would be interested to hear your views. There’s lots of information in the SPF and 20 Books FB groups about adult books, but not specifically middle-grade audio books.

All the best,

Amanda Wills

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Comment on Print on demand by kareninglis https://selfpublishingadventures.com/print-on-demand/#comment-12906
Sun, 13 Jan 2019 23:22:54 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=98#comment-12906Huge apologies for the delayed reply, Percy. The Christmas holidays rather took over and I was then just away skiing for a week. In short, you don’t need to change what you have done. Amazon will market its instance of the book — not the Ingram one — even though it will be aware of it.
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Comment on Print on demand by Percy https://selfpublishingadventures.com/print-on-demand/#comment-12670
Fri, 28 Dec 2018 22:18:00 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=98#comment-12670Hi Karen,

My book (print format) is finally on sale on Amazon! 🙂 Thanks so much for all your advice on many occasions. I hope you could kindly help me again.

I am now in the process of uploading my book to Ingram. in your book on publishing (which, btw, is my ‘go to’ for everything and has been extremely useful), you have specifically advised NOT to use Ingram to fulfil Amazon orders.

My question is: is there anything I need to do specifically at the time of uploading the print files to prevent Ingram from fulfilling Amazon orders? Is it OK to use Ingram’s Global Connect Program? I have selected all the markets on Ingram (US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia) using the same list prices I’ve used for Amazon (with 45% discount non-returnable, as you have also suggested) and I have opted out of KDP Expanded Distribution.

You advice, once again, would be greatly appreciated .
Thanks
Percy
(ps – I’m really sorry I haven’t been able to leave a review for your book yet as I still don’t qualify, but will definitely leave one the moment they allow me to do that.)

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Comment on The Seven-year Pitch: The Story of my Children’s Bestseller… by 7 Ways To Market Books For Children | David Gaughran https://selfpublishingadventures.com/2018/09/18/my-childrens-bestseller-the-seven-year-pitch/#comment-12569
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 10:53:29 +0000http://selfpublishingadventures.com/?p=2056#comment-12569[…] on long-tail marketing, you can read about the seven-year journey of The Secret Lake to Amazon UK bestseller on my blog. I hope you enjoy the […]
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Comment on ISBNs by kareninglis https://selfpublishingadventures.com/isbns/#comment-12481
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 11:31:10 +0000http://kareninglis.wordpress.com/?page_id=121#comment-12481My pleasure. (Feel free to recommend my children’s books to friends in return 🙂 )
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